System and method for location-based targeted notifications using wireless communication devices

ABSTRACT

A system, method and computer readable medium for targeting messages delivered by wireless communication comprising determining at least one target space within at least one wireless communications network, determining a notification list comprising at least one recipient in said at least one target space, determining at least one notification message, and transmitting said at least one notification message through said at least one wireless communications network to at least one recipient on said notification list.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation from U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/863,436, filed Sep. 28, 2007, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORLOCATION-BASED TARGETED NOTIFICATIONS USING WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONDEVICES”, the entire contents of which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a system and method for providing targetednotifications and in particular to providing targeted notifications tousers of wireless communications devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Wireless communications devices have become a preferred communicationsdevice for many users. A wireless communications device allows a user tobe in communication with relevant information sources regardless of therecipient's location. Methods and systems exist for allowing a recipientto subscribe to a notification service to receive desired informationsuch as sporting scores, stock market reports and the like. Thesenotifications are broadcast to all subscribed recipients without thenotification being targeted specifically to the recipient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides enhancements to existing notificationservices by supporting notifications targeted to specific recipients, inparticular by targeting notifications to recipients within an area.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, a method for targeting messagesdelivered by wireless communication comprises determining at least onetarget space within at least one wireless communications network;determining a notification list comprising at least one recipient in thetarget space; determining at least one notification message; andtransmitting at least one generated notification message through the atleast one wireless communications network to at least one recipient onthe notification list.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, a wireless communications systemcomprises at least one wireless communications network; at least onemobile station registered on the wireless communications network; atleast one processor; and at least one memory; wherein the memory storesat least one target space; wherein the processor is adapted to determineat least one mobile station serviced by the wireless communicationsnetwork within the target space; and wherein the processor is adapted tocause transmission of at least one notification message to the at leastone mobile station within the at least one target space through the atleast one wireless communications network.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, a computer readable mediumcomprises instructions executable on at least one processor forreceiving a definition of a target space; determining a list of mobilestations within the defined target space; and causing at least onewireless communications network to provide at least one notificationmessage to at least one of said mobile stations in said list of mobilestations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, withreference to specific embodiments and to the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 represents a wireless communications system;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart representing a targeted notification process;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart representing a process for determining anotification list;

FIG. 4 represents an interface for providing notification data; and

FIG. 5 represents a system for providing targeted notifications.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to FIG. 1, there is shown a network space 10 serviced bya plurality of serving stations 11, 12, 13, 14. Each serving station isassociated with a wireless communications network and is capable ofserving mobile stations 21, 22, 23, 24 within the network space 10. Asis known in the art, a wireless communications network, for examplenetwork 28, has a Home Location Register (HLR) 25 with database 26. Asis well known, the HLR 25 stores registration information, via database26, for each mobile station registered to the network, the registrationinformation including a current or last known location for the mobilestation. Other components common to wireless networks are omitted forclarity.

In the illustration of FIG. 1, serving stations 11, 12, 14 eachcorrespond to associated wireless network 28 while serving station 13 isassociated with wireless network 29.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided acomputer system 30 having at least one processor 31 and at least onememory 32 storing an instruction set that is executable on the processor31. The computer system is in communication with the wireless networks28, 29 through any suitable communications interface. The computersystem 30 includes an interface 33 for controlling the processor as willbe described below.

A method for providing targeted notification in accordance with anembodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to FIG.1 and to the flowchart 100 of FIG. 2.

At step 101, a target space 40 is determined within the network space10. The target space may be determined by retrieving a pre-definedtarget space from the memory 32, or may be defined, for example, by auser inputting a target space such as a geographic region through theinterface 33. At step 102, the processor determines a notification listbeing a list of intended recipients within the target space 40, iemobile stations 21, 22, 23. At step 103, the processor determines anotification message to be sent to the recipient list. The notificationmessage may be determined by retrieving a message from a messagedatabase, such as from memory 32 or from an external database as will bedescribed in greater detail below. Alternatively, a user may enter anotification message through interface 33.

The processor 31 then pushes the notification message to each of therecipients in the notification list, ie mobile stations 21, 22, 23 (step104) through the networks 28, 29, using known techniques.

A process for determining the notification list will now be describedwith reference to FIG. 1 and to the flowchart 200 of FIG. 3.

A target space 40 has been defined at step 201, for example in a mannerdescribed above. At step 202, the processor 31 determines the stations11, 12, 13 serving the target space 40. The serving stations may bedetermined using a map, stored in memory 32, that associates a list ofserving stations with their respective coverage area. Alternatively, thetarget space may be defined as a list of serving stations such that thesteps of defining the target space 40 and determining the servingstations 11, 12, 13 occur concurrently.

With the serving stations 11, 12, 13 known, the processor 31 thendetermines each of the networks 28, 29 associated with the servingstations (step 203). The processor then sequentially queries thenetworks 28, 29 to determine the mobile stations currently active in thetarget space. Selecting a first network 28, the processor 31 commencesthe query by providing a list of the relevant serving stations 11, 12 tothe network 28 (step 204). The network runs its own internal query tothe HLR 25 to determine the mobile stations that are currently beingserved by the serving stations 11, 12. For serving stations 11, 12, thecurrent mobile stations are mobile stations 21, 22. The list of mobilestations is then received as a query response from the network 28 by theprocessor 31 (step 205). The processor 31 then repeats the query processfor the network 29 in respect of serving station 13, and for eachnetwork providing serving stations to the target space 40.

No query is provided to a network in respect of mobile serving stations24, as the initial processing determines that the mobile servingstations 24 do not service the target space 40.

Once all networks have been queried, the processor concatenates the listof mobile stations (step 206). The processor then generates anotification that is to be sent to the target space (step 207), forexample in the manner described above. The notification may be generatedas a preset notification stored in memory 32 or may be input by a userthrough the interface 33. Alternatively, the notification message may begenerated by retrieving the notification message from a third partydatabase as will be described in greater detail below.

The processor 31 then pushes the notification message to each of therecipients in the concatenated list, ie mobile stations 21, 22, 23 (step208) using known techniques. Instead of providing a notification messageto all mobile stations within the target space, the processor mayfurther process the list of mobile stations to select only eligiblerecipients, such as those that have opted in to a notification service.A registration of recipients who have opted for a notification servicemay be stored in memory 32 and accessed to determine the eligiblerecipients.

As described above, the computer system 30 provides an interface 33, forexample through an internet interface, allowing authorized users toprovide notification data into a notification record. An example of aninterface 33 is shown as a graphic user interface in FIG. 4. In thegraphic interface 33, a user is able to select a map 34 or one or moresubregions 36 of a map. The user may also enter a notification messageinto the field 35. With this information entered, the processor 33 isable to process the region data and the notification message to thensend the notification message to all mobile stations within the enteredregions. The data may be entered at the time the notification is to besent, or the notification may be scheduled, for example by enteringscheduling information into field 37.

In one alternative, instead of providing a specific notification message35, a user may provide a link 38 to a third party database wherenotification messages are stored. Such a system allows a third partyuser to update and maintain the notification messages, without beingrequired to access the computer system 30.

In one embodiment, the processor executes a scheduling routine thatcontrols the scheduling of notification messages in accordance withschedule information entered through the interface. The schedulingroutine allows a user to enter a notification into the system once, withupdates to notification messages being provided by means of a link to anotification message database. Each time the notification executes, theprocessor retrieves the most up to date notification message through thespecified link.

An example of a notification may be a geographic report, such as atraffic or weather report targeted to a specific area. In a trafficreport example, illustrated in FIG. 5, a traffic management authority 50schedules a traffic report notification through the computer system 30.The traffic report notification within computer system 30 provides areference link to a database 51 which maintains up to date trafficinformation. The traffic management authority 50 may schedule thetraffic reports for regular intervals, for example, hourly, through thecomputer system 30. The traffic reports can be targeted to specificareas, such as areas serviced by major roads, suburbs, or any suitablydefinable area. In the example shown, the traffic management authorityschedules a first notification targeted to area 52 serviced by station55 and a second notification targeted to area 53 serviced by station 56.A recipient 54 who has opted to receive a traffic update service willreceive the hourly reports for as long as they are in a designated area.Initially, the recipient is in area 52 and so receives traffic reportstargeted to area 52. As the recipient 54 journeys to area 53 (as shownin ghosted outline), the recipient 54 will receive traffic reportstargeted to area 53. Thus, the recipient receives the trafficinformation most relevant to their location.

As well as regular reports, the traffic management authority may alsoprovide urgent notifications by providing the information to thecomputer system 30 and scheduling the urgent notification for immediatetransmission.

The ability to provide urgent notifications makes the invention suitablefor providing emergency notifications targeted to regions in which theemergency is current. Emergency notifications may include stormwarnings, flood warnings, terrorism warnings etc. For example recipientsin one region of a storm affected area may be notified of a firstevacuation route while recipients in a second area may be notified of asecond evacuation route. Urgent notifications may also have a commercialnature, for example notification of sales and similar events.

The above described embodiments provide examples of pushing notificationmessages to recipients. That is, the timing of the notification iscontrolled from the message provider viewpoint, for example under thecontrol of a notification scheduler. In an alternative embodiment,notification messages may be pulled from the system by the recipient.When a recipient, eg recipient 21 in FIG. 1 enters a target space 40,the HLR 25 will register that the recipient is within the target space.This registration may trigger the processor 31 to provide the recipientwith a notification message pertaining to the target space 40. That is,a notification list is determined in response to a recipient enteringthe target space 40. The notification list may have a single recordpertaining to the recipient 21 or may have additional records pertainingto other recipients who have recently entered the target space. Withreference now to the traffic management embodiment of FIG. 5 describedabove, the recipient 54 may receive a traffic report as soon as therecipient enters region 52 and then receive a further traffic report asthe recipient enters region 53. That is, the recipient does not rely ona notification schedule in order to receive notification messages butinstead receives the notification messages as soon as is relevant, ie,immediately upon entering the respective target space.

The skilled addressee will readily understand that the invention relatesto the methods and systems for providing targeted notifications, not thespecific types of communications provided. Therefore, all manner ofcommunications, including but not limited to voice, data, text message,VOIP, email, fax, multimedia etc and their equivalents are considered tobe within the scope of the invention. Similarly, the present inventionis considered to be independent of the type of mobile telecommunicationsdevice employed, with, for example, mobile telephones, pagers, personaldigital assistants, WAP enabled devices etc being considered asequivalent and hereinafter referred to as mobile stations.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated inthe accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing description, itwill be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodimentsdisclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, andsubstitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as setforth and defined by the following claims. For example, the capabilitiesof the invention can be performed fully and/or partially by one or moreof the blocks, modules, processors or memories. Also, these capabilitiesmay be performed in the current manner or in a distributed manner andon, or via, any device able to provide and/or receive information.Further, although depicted in a particular manner, various modules orblocks may be repositioned without departing from the scope of thecurrent invention. Still further, although depicted in a particularmanner, a greater or lesser number of modules and connections can beutilized with the present invention in order to accomplish the presentinvention, to provide additional known features to the presentinvention, and/or to make the present invention more efficient. Also,the information sent between various modules can be sent between themodules via at least one of a data network, the Internet, an InternetProtocol network, a wireless source, and a wired source and viaplurality of protocols.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: retrieving at least onetarget space from a memory of at least one computing system within atleast one wireless communications network; determining at least onemobile station is currently active in the at least one target space bysequential query of the at least one wireless communications network;determining at least one notification message from a database of atleast one computing system; and transmitting said at least onenotification message through said at least one wireless communicationsnetwork via a processor pushing the at least one notification message toat least one recipient on a notification list.
 2. The method accordingto claim 1 wherein said at least one notification message is transmittedto each recipient on said notification list.
 3. The method according toclaim 1 wherein determining said notification list comprises determiningthe recipients within said target space.
 4. The method according toclaim 3 further comprising determining the recipients within said targetspace that are eligible recipients.
 5. The method according to claim 3wherein determining the recipients within said target space comprises:determining one or more serving stations providing wirelesscommunication service to said target space; determining at least onemobile station registered to a recipient receiving wirelesscommunications service from said one or more serving stations.
 6. Themethod according to claim 5 further comprising determining a wirelesscommunications network associated with said one or more serving stationsand executing a query to said wireless communications network todetermine at least one mobile station receiving wireless communicationsservice from said one or more serving stations.
 7. The method accordingto claim 6 comprising executing said query to each wirelesscommunications network providing wireless communications service to saidtarget space.
 8. The method according to claim 1 wherein determiningsaid notification message comprises retrieving a notification messagefrom a database.
 9. The method according to claim 8 wherein retrieving anotification message from a database comprises accessing said databaseto retrieve a link to an external database and retrieving saidnotification message from said external database.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 1 wherein determining a notification messagecomprises receiving a message from a user through a user interface. 11.The method according to claim 3 wherein at least the steps ofdetermining the recipients within said target space and transmitting atleast one notification message to at least one recipient on saidnotification list are performed in accordance with a schedule.
 12. Themethod according to claim 1 wherein determining said notification listis performed in response to a recipient entering said at least onetarget space.
 13. A system, comprising: at least one wirelesscommunications network; at least one processor; and at least one memory;wherein said memory stores at least one target space; wherein saidprocessor determines the at least one mobile station is currently activein the at least one target space by sequential query of the at least onewireless communications network; and wherein said processor transmitsthe at least one notification message to said at least one mobilestation within said at least one target space through said at least onewireless communications network.
 14. The system of claim 13 wherein saidat least one wireless communications network comprises at least one of ahome location register and a visitor location register and wherein saidprocessor queries at least one of said home location register and saidvisitor location register to determine at least one mobile stationwithin said target space.
 15. The system of claim 14 wherein said atleast one wireless communications network comprises a plurality ofserving stations, wherein said memory stores an association between atleast one of said serving stations and said target space, and whereinsaid processor queries at least one of said home location register andsaid visitor location register by a provision to said wirelesscommunication network with one or more of said serving stationsassociated with said target space.
 16. The system of claim 13 whereinsaid memory stores at least one link to at least one externalnotification message database and wherein said processor retrieves atleast one notification message from said at least one externalnotification message database.
 17. A non-transitory computer readablemedium comprising instructions executable on at least one processor for:receiving a definition of a target space via input through at least oneinterface; retrieving at least one target space from a memory;determining a list of mobile stations is currently active in the definedtarget space by sequential query of at least one wireless communicationsnetwork; and causing at least one wireless communications network toprovide the at least one notification message to at least one of saidmobile stations in said list of mobile stations via the processorpushing the at least one notification message to at least one input ofthe at least one of said mobile stations in said list of mobilestations.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable medium according toclaim 17 further comprising instructions for determining one or moreserving stations that provide wireless communications to said definedtarget space.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable medium accordingto claim 18 further comprising instructions for retrieving from a memoryan association between a plurality of serving stations and an areaserviced by said plurality of serving stations and processing saidassociation to determine one or more serving stations that service saiddefined target space.
 20. The non-transitory computer readable mediumaccording to claim 17 further comprising instructions for providing aninterface and for receiving at least one of a notification message and alink to a notification message through said interface.
 21. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 17 furthercomprising instructions for providing an interface and receiving anotification schedule through said interface.
 22. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium according to claim 21 further comprisinginstructions for causing at least one wireless communications network toprovide at least one notification message to at least one of said mobilestations in said list of mobile stations in accordance with a schedulereceived through said interface.